“The Longchamp mysteries combine history and mystery in a gritty way that makes them feel different from most amateur-sleuth fare – dark-edged rather than cozy. Faye, too, is not your traditional amateur sleuth; she could just as easily anchor a gritty thriller series and give some of the giants in that genre a run for their money.” –Booklist In Undercurrents, the eleventh Faye Longchamp … eleventh Faye Longchamp Mystery, Faye has traveled to Memphis, a city steeped in music, poverty, history, and the smoky tang of barbecue. She’s there working alone to do an assessment of a site, welcome work for her small archaeological consulting firm.
When Faye spies a child too young to be wandering along a creek alone, she follows the girl. A day later she uncovers a dying woman, buried alive near a spot where Kali might well be hiding. Nobody would blame Faye for running hard, but she can’t make herself leave Kali, the woman’s now orphaned daughter, who might be in danger. She’s not welcomed by the people in Kali’s struggling community, nor by the police working the crime. Yet she stays, for Kali, and for the bereaved who need her to communicate their fears to a police department that they trust even less than they trust Faye.
When they confide rumors of other women beaten to death by a man so obsessed with burial that he places fresh flowers in their cold hands, Faye begs the police to widen the investigation to seek a serial killer. They refuse. Faye’s gut is telling her that a monster is stalking Memphis, endangering the child she has come to love. If the police can’t catch him, then she will have no choice but to try to find him herself.
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Mary Anna Evans just gets better and better as a writer. She proves as much in her eleventh novel in her Faye Longchamp series, “Undercurrents,” which is as fresh, original, and engrossing as the first book in the series. If you don’t know this series, this is as good a book as any in the series to jump in with–then you can go and catch up with the other books. And if you know the series, don’t miss this new one.
Combining history, mystery, intriguing characters, settings, and archaeology, Evans keeps the suspense high. There’s more intrigue to the story than just its mystery. Set in Memphis, Tennessee, this story involves a poor African-American community, compassion, economics, and racism. Multi-faceted characters, each of their plots woven intricately, add to the novel’s vibrancy.
Faye Longchamp-Mantooth is an archaeologist based on fictional Joyeuse Island in the Florida panhandle. She’s petite and mixed-race. Her family history and genealogy could fuel a mini-series. Faye is smart, analytical, driven, brave, and loving. She investigates messes and murders with a genuine desire to help people in trouble. This time the beneficiary of her kindness is Kali, a young girl.
Kali and Faye are the emotional heart of Undercurrents. Faye travels to Memphis to assess a site for possible development in fictional Sweetgum State Park. She needs the work and reluctantly leaves Joe at home with their children. Before any development takes place, park officials want Faye to analyze the area for its potential historical significance. A group of segregated African-Americans worked here as part of the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. Before Faye and her crew begin their assessment, two things happen: Faye spots Kali wandering alone in the woods, and the next day an archaeologist finds the corpse of a brutally beaten woman who had been buried alive.
I read every book in the Faye Longshamp series and enjoyed them all.
Undercurrents (Faye Longchamp #11) by Mary Anna Evans is a suspenseful murder mystery set in Memphis. Faye Longchamp-Mantooth is in a totally different cultural vibe as she prepares to lead a group of students in a project for the Sweetgum State Park just outside Memphis, TN. This project is to clear the way for a park expansion and the government has contracted Faye to make a cultural resource analysis because of the Civilian Conservation Corps campground and buildings which had been built in the 1930’s by a group of the segregated African-American workers. This was a piece of history which needed to be documented before any excavations in the area could proceed. First, we will meet Kali, a little girl with a big attitude and a survivor’s determination.
Early one morning, Faye happens upon a shocking sight, a fresh grave and the loosely turned soil is moving! Quickly she begins to excavate a young woman who has been beaten and left to die in a grave. Kali has seen too much. Faye has seen too much, or so the murderer thinks. A killer is watching!
I love these books. I wish Faye and I could be friends or I could be a part of her team.
This story seems to have a more human element of despair or sadness due to lives trapped in poverty, unsafe neighborhoods, and the high rate of crime. I live 2 hours from Memphis, and I would not want to go anywhere near some of the neighborhoods. I knew tourists who had family members killed walking down Beale Street in daylight many years ago. I could understand the conflicts Faye faces within a neighborhood and community which has citizens with enormous pride of place while they also struggle with the escalating crime on their streets.
A very well written mystery which also exposes the depth of suffering in high crime communities.
Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.